To Dwell

He counts boards. He counts nails, old bricks, rye meal, everything down to the half cent. On a first read, Kaag says, Economy is the dullest opening any classic ever risked, and he thinks the counting is exactly the point. The episode starts with the chapter's title, a word whose root means something warmer than markets, and follows it into the ledgers: what does a life actually cost, and who keeps the books? Then the cabin, and the awkward question of where its boards came from. Thoreau has a reputation as the man who did everything alone. Listen to what he actually admits.